Kayaking La Jolla Caves

Kayaking La Jolla Caves was

supposed to be like this ...

and this.

as

But it was more like this

so we didn't go in the caves.

Kayaking La Jolla caves turned out to be kayaking La Jolla Cove.  Still fun, but not as exciting as we expected.  In fact, I was kicking myself for not buying the whale watching kayaking trip until I heard a story from a friend whose brother accidentally got between a Mama whale and her calf.  Mom reached up and gave him a good smack with her fin.  It bent his paddle, and he got out of there in a hurry.  Later he found out how lucky he was.  If Mama had successfully knocked him off his kayak, she probably would have held him under to protect her calf.  So it was just as well that we were only kayaking La Jolla Cove.

The trip was a riot.  The water was a little choppy; wavy enough to send one kayaker back to shore, seasick.  The cove, though,was beautiful, filled with giant sea kelp, growing 3 feet a day, and sea lions.  The day was partly sunny, warm enough to be happy to be outside.

We checked in at La Jolla Sea Cave Kayaks.  They did their thing and, before long, sent us packing to the beach.  We bobbed along the blocks of chic La Jolla wearing puffy life vests and helmets on our head.  We felt ridiculous and laughed pretty much the whole way.

We hooked up with our crew at the beach.  Devin and I were very stable paddlers, and even had someone admire our synchronized paddling.  Timothy and Krista's kayak was a little less predictable.  While no one else's kayak tipped them out, Timothy and Krista's kayak racked up a total of 3 ejections.

The first was when the group was challenged to stand on their kayak for 10 seconds, a game to kill time since we couldn't safely go in the caves.  All of the kids did it, no problem.  Timothy did it several times until, ultimately, he stood on the tip and fell in.  The water was chilly and being wet was even chillier in the breezy cool air.  He paddled faster after that.

We had a chance to eat some giant sea kelp, the bulbs and the leaves.  I liked them.  The kids thought they tasted, alternately, salty, slimy, and crunchy.  All of us got a huge kick out of listening and watching the seals and sea lions, a couple of them popping up right around our kayak.

The second and third ejections came shortly after Timothy and Krista listened to the instructions about how not to tip a kayak while paddling through waves onto the beach.  After that, both of them were very wet, cold, and sandy.

We were glad we'd left our camera in the car although we missed a few great pictures, for sure.

As always, these marine reserves are national treasures.  Learn more about La Jolla Underwater Park here.